In Labado, a town of about 12,000 people including displaced residents, at least 70 people have died and roughly 1,000 have been infected since March, according to a local crisis group, though state health authorities report significantly lower figures.
Hawa Adam, 37, said her two-year-old son Ali fell ill on Feb. 25 and died two days later in Labado.
“I thought it was one of the ordinary childhood diseases,” she told Al Jazeera. “I never imagined I would lose my child to this epidemic.”
She blamed his death on the lack of basic healthcare, including vaccinations and trained doctors.
“Most doctors”, she said, “left the area after the war broke out, forcing those with means to seek treatment abroad, in South Sudan or Uganda.”
According to Mohamed Abdel Aziz, 32, coordinator of the Labado crisis unit, the outbreak has affected 12 neighborhoods in the town.
However, East Darfur health director Dr Jabir al-Nadeef said measles has spread to four districts but reported 300 cases and 26 deaths, figures that differ sharply from those recorded locally.
“Vaccines only arrived on April 11 from Chad via UNICEF [United Nations Children’s Fund ], after a prolonged period with no supply, and a vaccination campaign is scheduled to run from April 18 to 24 across the state,” he said.
Measles, a highly contagious viral disease, spreads through contact with infected respiratory secretions or airborne transmission, according to the World Health Organization.
Outbreaks can cause severe complications and death, particularly among young and malnourished children.
There is no specific antiviral treatment for measles, and care focuses on managing symptoms and complications.
Dr al-Nadeef said vitamin A supplies had been distributed across East Darfur to help prevent and treat complications.
He added that patients reaching health facilities are isolated, while families must pay for any additional medicines required.
Meanwhile, the outbreak has been linked to a broader collapse of health services in Darfur.
The first cases in the current outbreak were recorded in January, UNICEF said, as conflict disrupted routine immunisation, damaged facilities and forced medical staff to flee.
“We discovered the outbreak by accident,” Abdel Aziz said.
He explained that community teams conducting home visits after a fire-prevention workshop began noticing widespread infections, with nearly half the households visited reporting measles cases.
Abdel Aziz said the confirmed death toll has reached 70, with infections estimated at about 1,000.
In affected communities, families report multiple child deaths within single neighborhoods.
In the al-Nil area of Labado, Ismail Issa, 38, said his two-year-old daughter Makarem died on March 11.
His brother Ahmed lost his 18-month-old son, Issa, on March 25, while their relative Medeeha lost her three-year-old son Hasan on March 23.
The three families live in adjacent homes, and the infection spread between them.
“We tried to cure them with simple remedies like trying to lower temperatures with water compresses and using handmade potions from local plants to help with itching, but we couldn’t afford medicines, and sometimes we couldn’t find them,” Ismail said.
Abdel Aziz said shortages of medicines at the government health center, which ran out on Feb. 23, contributed significantly to deaths.
Although drugs remain available in private pharmacies, most residents cannot afford them.
He said intravenous fluids cost about 8,000 Sudanese pounds ($20.50), while antibiotics for complications range from 10,000 to 15,000 pounds ($25.60 to $38.40).
A local organization briefly supplied medicines, but stocks were depleted within two days.
For some families, treatment requires long and difficult travel.
Asmaa Jalaluddin, 28, said her three-year-old daughter Mashaer fell ill on April 5 with fever, diarrhoea and vomiting, and stopped eating.
On April 8, she took her to a Labado health center, where she was diagnosed with measles but found no medicines available.
She was advised to travel 40 kilometers north to Shuairiya, where the child received treatment on April 10 and was discharged two days later after improving.
Asmaa said her five-year-old daughter had also contracted measles in March and later recovered.
“Families in Labado are suffering from the disease because vaccination has stopped at health facilities,” she said.
Health officials and aid agencies warn of declining immunization coverage.
Local doctors have called for international intervention, saying previously controlled diseases are re-emerging.
UNICEF spokesperson Eva Hinds said ongoing insecurity, displacement and damage to health infrastructure were hindering the response.
“Measles cases continue to be reported across Darfur, with insecurity, displacement, damaged health facilities, and prolonged disruption to routine immunization all constraining the response,” she said.
“Measles vaccination coverage has fallen to 46 percent, while routine immunization – measured by the first dose of the diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis vaccinen- dropped to just 48 percent in 2024, threatening decades of progress in child health,” she added.
UNICEF said a measles-rubella vaccination campaign has reached about 2.1 million children in Central and West Darfur and parts of North and South Darfur.
Vaccinations in remaining areas, including East Darfur, are scheduled from mid- to late April, targeting nearly 750,000 children across the state.
However, for many families in Labado, the outbreak has already taken a heavy toll.
In al-Nil neighborhood, three siblings buried their children within days during the Eid holiday.
In Dar al-Naim West, a mother waits for her daughter to complete a 14-day isolation period.
In Safaa neighborhood, Hawa Adam mourns her son.
“They could have still been alive,” she said. “Those without money die in Darfur.”